Concern at Security Council of US taking ‘complete control’ of conflict resolution process
Various versions of the US draft resolution have been circulating for days.
This version does differ in some significant ways. First of all, it explicitly states that Israel has accepted the ceasefire deal – a previous version only said that a ceasefire deal was acceptable to Israel.
It removes any mention of the creation of buffer zones being unacceptable. There are thoughts that Israel does plan to create a buffer zone in Gaza, and it explicitly states that any ceasefire will continue after six weeks and be renewed as long as negotiations continue.
It welcomes the readiness of the US, Egypt and Qatar to work to ensure negotiations keep going until all the agreements are reached and phase two is able to begin,
But it’s still not a categorical, permanent ceasefire. That’s what some members of the Security Council want. They’ve been calling in the past for an immediate, permanent, unconditional ceasefire. They don’t want this now to supersede those calls, nor are they particularly keen on the US taking complete control over any sort of conflict resolution process that will be enshrined in this resolution.
The main supplier and enabler of the Gaza genocide is not fit to be guarantor for a ceasefire deal. Nor has Israel accepted the deal, at least not the version the US wants us to believe. Plus this version, US and Israel only have to say Hamas stopped negotiating to resume the slaughter.
And as with all other proposals, no mention of the West Bank violence.
US is still trying to have its cake and eat it too. Essentially trying to get Egypt and Hamas to accept total surrender and let Israel continue doing what it wants in Rafah and the rest of Gaza.
Blinken due in Egypt in eighth visit to Middle East since Gaza war began
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to arrive in Egypt in a few hours on his eighth visit to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began, Blinken is expected to push the US’s latest ceasefire plan – the one its diplomats are trying to move to a vote in the Security Council.
In Cairo, he will hold talks behind closed doors with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a key US partner in peace efforts. He is also expected to discuss ways to open the Rafah crossing, which has been closed since it was seized by Israel a month ago.
Blinken will then travel to Jerusalem for discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US has said Israel has accepted the plan, but Hamas has not formally responded.
Blinken will also visit Jordan and Qatar before returning on Wednesday.
Israel’s Smotrich reiterates opposition to ceasefire deal
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, has insisted he will not support the US-backed ceasefire proposal because it does not guarantee Hamas’s destruction.
“Our responsibility as a leadership is to think about things that are not only here and now, but also what the long-term implications are of every decision we make on the security of the people of Israel, with the future of the Jewish people,” Smotrich said at a finance committee meeting, according to Israel’s 0404 news site.
“We will turn over every stone in order to bring back all the abductees, but we will not commit suicide collectively.”
What is the status of the US-backed ceasefire plan?
As we’ve been reporting, US Secretary of State Blinken is back in the region for a renewed Gaza ceasefire push. Here’s where things stand on a possible deal:
- On May 31, US President Joe Biden unveiled a three-stage ceasefire plan, which he said was agreed by Israel.
- However, neither Israel nor Hamas appear to have fully backed the proposal, which the US has been working on multiple drafts of.
- A key sticking point is a transition from a six-week ceasefire, outlined in stage one, to a permanent ceasefire, negotiations for which are to take place in stage two. The third stage talks about the reconstruction process.
- Netanyahu has ruled out a permanent truce while Hamas wants clear guarantees of an end to the war.
- In an interview with Al Jazeera, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that Israel is trying to block ceasefire efforts. Netanyahu and his coalition partners have warned against striking any deal with Hamas.
- On Sunday, the US called for the UN Security Council to vote on the Gaza ceasefire deal. The latest version of the proposal explicitly states that any ceasefire will continue after six weeks, and be renewed as long as negotiations continue, reported Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, “but it’s still not a categorical, permanent ceasefire”.
Political solution only way out of Gaza war: Ex-Israeli negotiator
The Israeli government is still operating under the misguided premise that military pressure will free its captives, despite mounting evidence that such pressure has actually put many of them in peril, says former Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin.
“There is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the future of Gaza, to the question of Hamas,” Baskin, who helped mediate the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit back in 2011, told Al Jazeera. “There are only political solutions … and those are the ones that are not being pursued by the government of Israel.”
Israeli people, he added, are united in their desire for Hamas to lose power in Gaza and for the captives to come home, but see “very few coherent answers in front of us … to find a way out of this war”.
